this drives me bonkers! I was eating out recently, and a group of kids, all under 10, from a nearby table spent the entire meal racing up and down between the tables, yelling, screaming, and thumping up and down, knocking into elbows and tables of other diners. When my friend I was with got nailed, she stopped the lead kid in this game of tag and told them other people were trying to eat and would like to do it without being in the middle of a playground. THAT'S when mum and dad finally stepped in, but not to control the ruly bunch: to yell at my friend for telling their kid off!

I also once was in a coffee shop, and saw a man having coffee with a friend and his son. the son was clearly bored, and being ignored by dad completely. He started jumping around from chair to chair, and his antics knocked into a nearby shelf and caused a glass french press to fall to the ground and shatter. I was then treated to the lovely sight of Dad telling off the shop assistant for having 'dangerous items so close to the edge', then claiming to the manager that it wasn't his fault or his sons fault, and so he wasn't going to pay for the item his kid broke. In between, he proudly bragged to his friend about how you had to be firm with shop staff.

UGGGG.